Paul Ryan budget faces bumps amid GOP dissent

As Rep. Paul Ryan was laying out his Path to Prosperity budget Wednesday, Republican leadership was working behind the scenes to make sure there was a path for passage.

With roughly one week until a planned floor vote, an unexpected hiccup has surfaced: A small pocket of Republicans are threatening to vote against the Budget Committee chairman’s proposal because they are angry about a controversial parliamentary maneuver GOP leadership deployed last week on the so-called doc fix.

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“The [Medicare reimbursement vote] is part of a whole strategy to lay low and not take any hard positions before the election,” said Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.), who voted for the budget last year and has told leadership of his unease voting for it after the move.

“If [the budget] goes up on the board for a vote, I’ll look at what I’m voting on, but at the same time … is this going to be the status quo for operations the rest of the summer and up until the election?”

The resolution passed the House Budget Committee on Wednesday night with the support of the panel’s 22 Republicans.

Passing Ryan’s House Republican budget has always been a heavy lift for leadership, with little margin for error. Last year, Ryan’s budget passed by a seven-vote margin with 10 Republicans voting no.

There’s no practical reason for the House to pass another budget right now. Ryan brokered a deal with Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray that sets spending levels through next year. But Republicans have branded budgeting as a central responsibility of Congress.

And the simmering dispute is significant as it carries political consequences. Even the smallest group of members voting “no” can potentially put a vote in jeopardy and give a black eye to Ryan — a potential 2016 presidential contender — and Republican leadership.

This is the most serious fallout from the leadership’s effort last week to pass a “doc fix” bill. In the blink of an eye last Thursday, Republican leadership used a voice vote to pass a patch of reimbursement rates for physicians who serve Medicare patients. No one had the chance to vote for or against the bill, which faced opposition from both parties.

Cantor has met one-on-one with some members, made phone calls to others and will continue to reach out in the coming days. He discussed the doc fix vote at a meeting of the Republican Study Committee on Wednesday, as well. The message from leadership: The rapid voice vote was the “least bad” option. McCarthy and Ryan have also been working the House floor, to shore up support.

Senior Republican sources say they are confident the budget will pass, and also noted they think the situation is under control. Many of the people complaining and threatening to vote against Ryan’s budget wouldn’t have voted for it anyway, they say.

“It’ll pass,” McCarthy told reporters Wednesday.

As always, it’s a tough sell. McCarthy and Ryan have been working over members for weeks, calling their cellphones, offices and talking to them on the floor.

The pitch, according to several people familiar, is simple: One of the tenets of this Republican majority is that “we’ve always passed a budget,” according to several people who have whipped or been whipped.

“This is a good budget,” said one person who is familiar with the House leadership pitch. “It is consistent with what we’ve done in the past, and what we’ve voted for in the past, so there’s no reason not to vote for it.”

Speaker John Boehner told reporters Wednesday that “this is essentially the same budget we’ve put forward the last four years, updated for the fact that we’re into the fourth year of that budget.”

But the GOP doesn’t have much breathing room. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer told POLITICO Wednesday that Democrats would vote unanimously against the spending plan. That means Republicans can afford to lose only 16 of their own members. All 10 Republicans who voted against the budget last year are expected to oppose it again. Rep. David McKinley (R-W.Va.), who voted no last year, said GOP leadership is not even whipping him.

“I’m a no, I’ve been a consistent no,” he said.

Some “yes” votes from last year have already flipped. For example, Rep. Jack Kingston, a Georgian running in a GOP Senate primary, said he’s likely to vote against the budget.

The voice vote raised the ire of Republicans at the wrong time. House leadership moved swiftly to pass the doc fix by voice vote because of discord within the House Republican Conference. The process also angered the Ways and Means Committee, triggering a heated interaction between Boehner and Michigan Rep. Dave Camp, the panel’s chairman.

“We cannot function if we are going to allow decisions like that to be made from the top by leadership in consultation with Democrats,” said Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), who voted for the budget last year and said he has to study the bill over the next few days. “That means the staff of the leadership is more powerful than a member of Congress.”

Conservatives — many of whom frequently oppose leadership — say they’re tying their budget vote to their anger about the parliamentary tactic. Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.), who voted for the budget last year, said he’s leaning toward voting against it, and has told leadership that. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), who also supported Ryan’s spending plan in 2013, also spoke to Cantor.

“I’m not as trusting as I once was,” Gohmert said. “I’ve had a long talk with our majority leader — he contacted me.” Gohmert said he has not made a final decision yet on how he will vote for the budget.